A rrrrrr , me buckos . . .
It’s time to kick down doors, kill monsters, and take their
stuff . . . on the seven seas. Now the munchkins are scurvy
seafarers, talking with the worst accents they can manage!
Munchkin Booty is based on the original Munchkin and
can be combined with it, or with any of the other Munchkin
card games (see p. 6).
This game includes 168 cards, one six-sided die, and these
rules.
Setup
Three to six can
play. You will need
10 tokens (coins,
poker chips, whatever
– or any gadget that
counts to 10) for each
player.
Divide the cards into
the Door deck and the
Treasure deck. Shuffle
both decks. Deal four
cards from each deck to
each player.
Card Management
Keep separate face-up discard piles for the two decks. You
may not look through the discards unless you play a card that
allows you to!
When a deck runs out, reshuffle its discards. If a deck runs
out and there are no discards, nobody can draw any of that
kind of card!
In Play: These are the cards on the table in front of you,
showing your Class and Accent (if any) and the Items you are
carrying. Continuing Curses and some other cards also stay
on the table after you play them.
Your Hand: Cards in your hand are not in play. They don’t
help you, but they can’t be taken away except by cards that
specifically affect “your hand.” At the end of your turn, you
may have no more than five cards in your hand.
Contradictions Between
Cards and Rules
This rulesheet gives the general rules. Cards may add
special rules, so in most cases when the rulesheet disagrees with a card, follow the card. However, ignore any
card effect that might seem to contradict one of the rules
listed below unless the card explicitly says it supersedes
that rule!
1. Nothing can reduce a player below Level 1,
although card effects might reduce a player’s or a
monster’s combat strength (p. 2) below 1.
2. You go up a level after combat only if you kill a
monster.
3. You cannot collect rewards for defeating a monster
(e.g., Treasure, levels) in the middle of a combat. You
must finish the fight before gaining any rewards.
4. You must kill a monster to reach Level 10.
Any other disputes should be settled by loud arguments, with the owner of the game having the last word.
You could also read the Munchkin FAQ and errata
pages at www.worldofmunchkin.com, or start a discussion at forums.sjgames.com . . . unless it’s more fun
to argue.
When Cards Can Be Played: Each type of card can be
played at a specified time (see p. 5).
Cards in play may not be returned to your hand – they must
be discarded or traded if you want to get rid of them.
Character Creation
Everyone starts as a Level 1 character with no class. (We
never get tired of that joke, arrr.)
Look at your initial eight cards. If you have any Class or
Accent cards, you may (if you like) play one of each type by
placing it in front of you. If you have any Item cards, you may
play them by placing them in front of you. If you have any
doubt about whether you should play a card, you could read
below, or you could just charge ahead and do it.
lose the combat and must Run Away – see below. If your
combat strength totals more than the monster’s, you kill it
and go up a level (two for some big monsters). You’ll also get
the number of Treasures shown on its card.
Sometimes a card will let you get rid of the monster without killing it. This is still “winning,” but you don’t get a level.
Sometimes, depending on the card, you might not get the
treasure, either.
Some monster cards have special powers that affect combat – a bonus against one Class or Accent, for instance. Be
sure to check these.
One-shot items may be played directly from your hand during combat. You can also use one-shot items that you already
had in play. One-shot items say “Usable once only.” Discard
these cards after the combat, whether you win or lose.
Some Door cards may also be played
into a combat, such as monster
enhancers (see p. 5).
While you are in combat, you cannot sell, steal, equip, unequip, or
trade items, or play items (except for
one-shots) from your hand. Once you
expose a monster card, you must
resolve the fight with your equipment as
it stands, plus any one-shot items you choose to play.
Discard the monster card, including any enhancers and
one-shot items played, and draw treasure (see below). But
note: someone may play a hostile card on you, or use a
special power, just as you think you have won. When you kill
a monster, you must wait a reasonable time, defined as about
2.6 seconds, for anyone else to speak up. After that, you have
really killed the monster, and you really get the level(s) and
treasure, though they can still whine and argue.
Starting and
Finishing the Game
Decide who goes first in any way that you can agree on.
(Snicker.)
Play proceeds in turns, each with several phases (see
below). When the first player finishes his turn, the player to
his left takes a turn, and so on.
The first player to reach 10th level wins . . . but you must
reach 10th level by killing a monster, unless a card specifically
allows you to win another way.
Turn Phases
At the start of your turn, you may play
cards, switch items from “in use” to “carried” or vice versa, trade items with
other players, and sell items for levels.
When your cards are arranged the way
you want, go to phase 1.
(1) Kick Open The Door: Draw one card
from the Door deck and turn it face up.
If it’s a monster, you must fight it. See Combat. Resolve
the combat completely before you go on. If you kill it, go up
a level (or two, for some especially nasty monsters!) and take
the appropriate number of Treasures..
If the card is a curse – see Curses, p. 5 – it applies to you
immediately (if it can) and is discarded.
If you draw any other card, you may either put it in your
hand or play it immediately.
Fighting Multiple Monsters
(2) Look For Trouble: If you did NOT draw a monster
when you first opened the door, you now have the option of
playing a monster (if you have one) from your hand and
fighting it, just as if you had found it when you kicked open
the door. Don’t play a monster you can’t handle, unless you’re
sure you can count on getting help!
Some cards (notably Wandering Monster) allow your rivals
to send other monsters to join the fight. (And see “Shark”
Monsters, p. 5). You must defeat their combined combat
strengths. Any special abilities, such as fighting with your
Level only, apply to the entire fight. If you have the right cards,
you can eliminate one monster from the combat and fight the
other(s) normally, but you cannot choose to fight one and run
from the other(s). If you eliminate one with a card but then
run from the other(s), you don’t get any Treasure!
(3) Loot The Room: If you did not find a monster by kicking open the door and you did not Look For Trouble, you loot
the room . . . draw a second card from the Door deck, face
down, and place it in your hand.
If you met a monster but ran away, you don’t get to loot
the room.
Asking For Help
If you cannot win a combat on your own, you may ask any
other player to help you. If he refuses, you may ask another
player, and so on, until they all turn you down or someone
helps. Only one player can help you, adding his combat
strength to yours. Anyone can play cards to affect your combat, however!
You can bribe someone to help. In fact, you’ll probably
have to. You may offer your helper any Item(s) you are
currently carrying, or any number of the Treasure cards the
monster has. If you offer him part of the monster’s treasure,
you must agree whether he picks first, or you pick first, or
whatever.
The special abilities or vulnerabilities of the monster also
apply to your helper, and vice versa. For instance, if you are
not a Merchant, but a Merchant helps you, the Almighty Cod
will be a -3 against you. But if you are facing Sir Francis
Drake and a munchkin with a Spanish accent helps
(4) Charity: If you have more than five cards in your hand,
you must play enough of them to get down to five, or give the
excess to the player with the lowest Level. If players are tied
for lowest, divide the cards as evenly as possible, but it’s up to
you who gets the bigger set(s) of leftovers. If YOU are the
lowest or tied for lowest, just discard the excess.
It is now the next player’s turn.
Combat
To fight a monster, compare its combat strength to yours.
Combat strength is the total of Level plus all modifiers –
positive or negative – given by items and other cards. If the
monster’s combat strength is equal to yours, or greater, you
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each other player chooses one card . . . in case of ties in Level,
roll a die. If your corpse runs out of cards, tough. After
everyone gets one card, the rest are discarded.
Dead characters cannot receive cards for any reason, not
even Charity, and cannot level up.
When the next player begins his turn, your new character
appears and can help others in combat . . . but you have
no cards.
On your next turn, start by drawing four cards from each
deck, face-down, and playing any Accent, Class, or Item cards
you want to, just as when you started the game. Then take
your turn normally.
you, the foe’s level is increased by 5 (unless you, too, are
Spanish and the foe’s level has already been increased . . .
don’t increase it twice).
If someone successfully helps you, the monster is slain.
Discard it, draw treasure (see below), and follow any special
instructions on the monster card. You go up a level for each
slain monster. Your helper does not go up . . . unless he’s an
Elf, in which case he also gains one level for each monster
slain. You draw the Treasure cards, even if it was your
helper’s special ability that defeated the monster.
Interfering With Combat
Treasure
You can interfere with others’ combats in several
ways:
Use a one-shot item. You could help another player by
using a one-shot item against his foe. Of course, you can
“accidentally” hit your friend with the item, and it will
count against him.
Play a card to modify a monster. These cards (usually)
make a monster stronger . . . and give it more treasure.
You can play these either during your own combats or
during someone else’s combat.
Play a Wandering Monster along with a monster from
your hand to join any combat.
Curse them, if you have a Curse card.
When you defeat a monster, either by killing it or using a
card to eliminate it, you get its Treasure. Each monster has a
Treasure number on the bottom of its card. Draw that many
treasures. Draw face-down if you killed the monster alone.
Draw face-up, so the whole party can see what you got, if
someone helped you.
Treasure cards can be played as soon as you get them. Item
cards can be placed in front of you. “Go Up a Level” cards can
be used instantly. You may play a “Go Up a Level” card on
any player at any time.
Example of Combat, With
Numbers and Everything
Running Away
Beth is a 4th-Level Merchant sailing on the Brig
(which gives her a +3 to her combat strength). She
kicks open the door and finds Greenbeard, a Level 6
monster who has +3 against females. Beth’s at a 7
and Greenbeard is at 9, so Beth is losing.
Beth: Too bad about Greenbeard’s addiction to the
Demon Rum . . .
Beth plays Demon Rum, adding 4 to her combat
strength. Now Beth is winning, 11 to 9.
Drake: Did you say Greenbeard? I believe you mean
the legendary Greenbeard . . .
Drake plays Legendary on Greenbeard, adding 10
to his combat strength. Now Beth is losing again, 19
to 11.
Beth: Hmm. Guess I’ll have to use my translation
skills, mon ami . . .
Beth uses her Merchant power and discards a
French Accent. She now has all the abilities on the
French card, including the “Charm ze Rival” power
that allows her to compel any munchkin of the
opposite sex to help her in combat. Drake is
Level 6 and has enough Items to raise his combat
strength to 12.
Beth: And now that I’m fluent in French, how about
you help moi, Drake?
Drake: Sacre bleu!
With Drake’s 12, the munchkins beat Greenbeard,
23 to 19. Beth goes up one level and claims four
Treasures – two from the Greenbeard and two because he was Legendary. (Drake gets first pick of the
Treasure because he was Charmed into helping.)
And the game goes on . . .
If nobody will help you . . . or if somebody tries to help, and
your fellow party members interfere so the two of you still
cannot defeat it . . . you must run away.
If you run away, you don’t get any levels or treasure. You
don’t even get to Loot the Room. And you don’t always escape
unharmed . . .
Roll the die. You only escape on a 5 or better. Some items
or abilities make it easier or harder to run away. And some
monsters are fast or slow, and give you a penalty or bonus to
your roll.
If you escape, discard the monster. You get no treasure.
There are usually no bad effects . . . but read the card. Some
monsters hurt you even if you get away from them!
If the monster catches you, it does Bad Stuff to you, as
described on its card. This may vary from losing an item, to
losing one or more levels, to Death.
If two players are cooperating and still can’t defeat the
monster(s), they must both flee. They roll separately. The
monster(s) CAN catch them both.
If you are fleeing from multiple monsters, you roll separately to escape each one, in any order you choose, and suffer Bad Stuff from each one that catches you as soon as it
catches you.
Discard the monster(s).
Death
If you die, you lose all your stuff. You keep your Class(es),
Accent(s), and Level (and any Curses that were affecting you
when you died) – your new character will look just like your
old one.
Looting The Body: Lay out your hand beside the cards
you had in play. Starting with the one with the highest Level,
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Character Stats
Class: Characters may be Merchant, Navy, or Pirate. If you
have no Class card in front of you, you have no class. Yeah, I
know, we did that one already.
Each Class has different abilities, shown on the cards. You
gain the abilities of a Class the moment you play its card in
front of you, and lose them as soon as you discard that
card. Some Class abilities are powered by discards. You
may discard any card, in play or in your hand, to power a
special ability.
See the Class cards for when abilities can be used. You can
discard a Class card at any time, even in combat: “I don’t
wanna be a Pirate any more.” When you discard a Class card,
you become classless until you play another Class card.
You may not belong to more than one Class at once unless
you play the Super Munchkin card. You may not have two
copies of the same Class card in play.
Each character is basically a collection of weapons, armor,
and magic items, with three stats: Level, Accent, and Class.
For instance, you might describe your character as “an 8thlevel Spanish Pirate with Booty Boots, an Eye Patch, and a
Spanish Helmet, sailing a Cutter with a Poop Deck.”
Your character’s sex starts off the same as your own.
Level: This is a measure of how generally buff and studly
you are. When the rules or cards refer to your Level, capitalized, they mean this number.
You gain a level when you kill a monster, or when a card
says that you do. You can also sell items to buy levels (see
Items).
You lose a level when a card says that you do. Your Level
can never go below 1. However, your combat strength can be
negative if you get cursed or backstabbed.
Items
Level Counters:
It’s Not Cheating,
It’s Using the Rules!
Each Item card has a name, a power, a size, and a value in
Gold Pieces.
An Item card in your hand does not count until you play it;
at that point, it is “carried.” You may carry any number of
small items, but only one Big one. (Any item not designated
Big is considered Small.) You may not simply discard one Big
item to play another; you must sell it, trade it, lose it to a Curse
or Bad Stuff, or discard it to power a Class or Accent ability.
Anyone can carry any item, but some items have use
restrictions: for instance, the Silver Long Johns can only be
worn by a Pirate. Its bonus only counts for someone who is,
at the moment, a Pirate.
Likewise, you may also use only one headgear, one suit of
armor, one pair of footgear, and two “1 Hand” items (or one
“2 Hands” item) . . . unless you have a
card that lets you ignore these limits.
If you are carrying two Headgear
cards, for instance, only one of
them can help you.
You should indicate items that can’t
help you, or extras not being worn, by
turning the cards sideways. You may
NOT change your used and carried
items during a combat or while running away. You cannot discard Item
cards “just because.” You may sell
items for a level, or give an item to
another player who wants it. You may
discard to power certain Class and
Accent abilities. And a Curse may
force you to get rid of something!
Trading: You may trade items (but
not other cards) with other players. You
may only trade items from the table – not from your hand.
You may trade at any time except when you’re in combat – in
fact, the best time to trade is when it’s not your turn. Any item
you receive in a trade must go into play; you can’t sell it until
it’s your turn.
You may also give items away without a trade, to bribe
other players – “I’ll give you my Thigh Boots if you won’t help
Bob fight that Jellyfish!”
You may show your hand to others. Like we could stop you.
If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch*, you’ll like our
Level Counter application in the iTunes Store.
Just search for “Level Counter” or click the link at
levelcounter.sjgames.com. Even better, it gives you
personal in-game advantages to make your friends
jealous. Which is what being a munchkin is all about!
*Coming soon: a version for Android!
Accent: Characters speak with a
British, Dutch, French, or Spanish accent.
If you have no Accent card in front of you,
you have no accent.
Each Accent allows you different special
abilities or penalties (see the cards). You
gain the abilities of an Accent the moment
you play its card in front of you, and lose
them as soon as you discard that card.
You can discard an Accent card at
any time, even in combat: “I don’t
wanna sound Spanish any more.”
You may not have more than one
Accent at once unless you play the
Bilingual card. You may not have
two copies of the same Accent card in play.
When a Munchkin Booty card mentions (for
instance) “French,” it always means a French
accent, even if it does not say so. The monsters hear the
accent and assume you’re really French.
Flavor Note: You do not have to speak with your Accent(s),
but if you do, we here at Port Munchkin will be pleased. We
are sure that thanks to the wonders of television, you can do
an obnoxious French, British, or Spanish accent. Our friends
from the Netherlands don’t get as much screen time, though,
so if you don’t know how to sound like a Dutchman, you may
agree to fake it with any other accent, up to and including
Valley Girl. Gag me with a spoon, matey!
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All enhancers on a single monster add together. If there
are multiple monsters in a combat, the person who plays
each enhancer must choose which monster it applies to. If
Legendary, Bloodthirsty, and Accursed are played together,
in any order, you are facing a legendary bloodthirsty accursed
monster. Good luck . . .
Selling Items for Levels: During your turn, you may discard items worth at least 1,000 Gold Pieces and immediately
go up one level. If you discard (for instance) 1,100 Gold Pieces
worth, you don’t get change. But if you can manage 2,000
worth, you can go up two levels at once, and so on. You may
sell items from your hand as well as those you are carrying.
You may not sell items to go to Level 10.
“Shark” Monsters
Ships
The ocean is full of sharks . . . and when one appears there
are more nearby. Whenever any Shark is in a combat, any
player may play any other Shark from his hand to join it.
Some Sharks don’t have “Shark” in the monster name, but
they all have a “Shark” tag above the monster name.
Dear to a seafaring munchkin’s heart (as of now) is his
sturdy Ship. Because, of course, it gives bonuses. Ships are
found in the Door deck.
Normally, no player can have more than one Ship. Cheat!
cards and special powers can allow extra ships.
Ships are Items, and follow normal Item rules. Anything
that affects an Item can affect a Ship. Ships carry themselves.
A Ship is “Big,” but it does not count against the number of
Big items you can carry (in fact, some let you carry extra Big
things). The “Big” designation on Ships is to control what
Traps and Curses affect them, and to keep Thieves in a
blender game from pocketing them and walking off.
There are also a few Items that specifically enhance Ships.
Ships can also be enhanced by regular “Item Enhancers”
from other sets, if those Enhancers otherwise apply.
Enhancers cannot be moved between Ships. A Ship with an
Enhancer has the Enhancer’s gold value added to its own.
If a Ship gives a bonus or penalty to Run Away, that
replaces any bonus that its owner gets from
Footgear, Steeds (in a blender game), or
other possessions. If your Ship gives
you a penalty to Run Away, you may
discard the Ship before you roll to flee.
You don’t suffer the penalty, but the
Ship goes to the discard pile.
And . . . if you have more than one Ship,
you get all their combat bonuses and the
best Run Away bonus. You may ignore any
penalty from one ship that the other doesn’t
also give you, because, being a munchkin, you
are always on the best ship at any particular
moment.
Items – Playing Them
Any treasure card may be played to the table as soon as you
get it, or at any time during your own turn.
Items – Using Them
Any one-shot item can be played during any combat,
whether you have it in your hand or on the table. (Some
one-shot items, such as the Wishing Ring, may also be used
outside of combat.)
Other items cannot be used unless they are active. Items
turned sideways cannot help you, even if you could otherwise
legally use them.
Other Treasures
Other Treasure cards are “specials” (like
“Go Up a Level”). You may play these at any
time, unless the card itself says otherwise.
Follow the card’s instructions, then discard it,
unless it has a persistent bonus like an Item.
Curses
If drawn face-up, during the “Kick Open a
Door” phase, Curse cards apply to the person
who drew them.
If drawn face-down or acquired some other way, Curse
cards may be played on ANY player at ANY time. Any time,
do you hear me? Reducing someone’s abilities just as he
thinks he has killed a monster is a lot of fun.
Usually, a Curse affects its victim immediately (if it can)
and is discarded. However, some Curses give a penalty later
in the game or have a continuing effect. Keep these cards
until you get rid of the Curse or the penalty takes effect. If
someone plays a “your next combat” Curse on you while you
are in combat, it counts in that combat! (Curse cards you
keep as a reminder may not be discarded to power Class or
Accent abilities. Nice try!)
If a Curse can apply to more than one item, the victim
decides which item is lost or cursed.
If a Curse applies to something you don’t have, ignore it.
For instance, if you draw Lose Your Armor and you have no
armor, nothing happens; discard the card.
There will be times when it will help you to play a Curse or
Monster on yourself, or to “help” another player in a way that
costs him treasure. This is very munchkinly. Do it.
When to Play Cards
A quick reference guide . . .
Monsters
If drawn face-up, during the “Kick Open a Door” phase,
they immediately attack the person who drew them.
If acquired any other way, they go into your hand and may
be played during “Looking For Trouble,” or played on another
player with the Wandering Monster card.
Each Monster card is a single monster, even if the name on
the card is plural.
Monster Enhancers
Certain cards, called monster enhancers, raise or lower the
combat strength of individual monsters. (Yes, you can have a
negative enhancement.) Monster enhancers may be played by
any player during any combat.
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Classes and Accents
Super-Sized Munchkin
These cards may be played to the table as soon as they are
acquired, or at any time during your own turn. Super
Munchkin and Bilingual may be played similarly, but you
must have a Class to play Super Munchkin or an Accent to
play Bilingual.
Studies have shown that 8.4 out of 9.7 Munchkin
players just can’t get enough of the game. Here are
some ideas to take your Munchkin games to new heights
– or lows:
Combining different Munchkin sets. You can mix two
(or more) base sets and expansions together for a genrecrossing mega-Munchkin adventure! Space plus Old
West? Kung fu vampires? No problem!
Expansions. Most of the Munchkin core sets have
expansions that add still more monsters to kill, new
Treasure to loot, and sometimes entirely new kinds of
cards. Ask at your friendly local game store, or visit
www.warehouse23.com to buy directly from us.
Turn it up to EPIC! Playing to Level 10 just isn’t
enough for some people. To satisfy their insane cravings,
we’ve created Epic Munchkin, a new set of rules that
gives all your Munchkin sets that high-octane boost
you need to make it up to Level 20! Look for it on our
online PDF store, e23.sjgames.com – it’s completely,
absolutely FREE!
All of the above!!!
Designer’s Note
I have wanted to do a pirate Munchkin game for years, but
I always stumbled on the fact that – while historically there
were several different sorts of pirates and privateers – they
weren’t different enough to give me funny Classes. My thanks
to Brian Hogue for suggesting that Pirate should be one Class,
leaving entirely different types of seafarers as the other
Classes. After that breakthrough, the rest of this game fell into
place, arrrr. Monica Stephens is
responsible for the excellently
silly idea that the pirates should
not have “nationalities” as such,
but should talk in Accents
instead.
The faithful Munchkin
player will note that
the dungeon paradigm
COMPLETELY breaks
down in this genre. We
are sailing the seven seas
in search of plunder,
yet at the same time we are
“opening doors” and “looting rooms.” Yarrrr! We
be munchkins an’ we
don’t CARE!
Faster Play Rules
For a faster game, you can add a “phase 0” called
Listen At The Door. At the start of your turn, draw a
face-down Door card, which you may play or not.
Then arrange cards and Kick Open The Door normally.
If you Loot The Room, draw a face-down Treasure,
not a Door.
You can also allow shared victories – if a player
reaches Level 10 in a fight where he had a helper, the
helper also wins the game, no matter what Level he is.
Game Design by Steve Jackson • Illustrated by John Kovalic
“Rawk! Nice Chest!” Guest Card by Phil Foglio
Chief Operating Officer: Philip Reed • Munchkin Czar: Andrew Hackard
Art Director: Will Schoonover • Production Artist: Alex Fernandez
Development Help: Monica Stephens • Prepress Checkers: Will Schoonover and Monica Stephens
Print Buyers: Judey Dozeto and Will Schoonover • Marketing Director: Paul Chapman
Director of Sales: Ross Jepson
Evil piratical suggestions and naughty nautical card ideas: Fox Barrett, Andrew Hackard, Brian Hogue, Fade Manley,
Mark Schmidt, and Monica Stephens. Ye playtesters who sent good ideas an’ don’t see ’em here, fear not. Some of ’em are
in the first supplement, and we be plannin’ more piratey goodness over the horizon . . .
As has become our frequent custom, two of the cards in this set were auctioned off at WarpCon (Cork, Ireland) for charity,
and John Kovalic drew the winners as seafaring munchkins. Thanks to Donal Behal (the male Super Munchkin) and Niall Bole
(the Eyepatch guy) for their very generous contributions to children’s hospitals. Arr, some pirates be good guys indeed!
Playtesters: Afredo, Jimmie Bragdon, Matthew Brown, Jason Cates, Richard Dodson, Clifford Elder, Claire Ford, Chris Galvan,
Andrew Hackard, JHG Hendriks, Freya Jackson, Richard Kerr, Birger Krämer, Charles Leake, Fade Manley,
Randy Scheunemann, Marcia Schoonover, Will Schoonover, Tom Smith, Wendy Smith, Nicholas Vacek, and Loren Wiseman.
Munchkin, Munchkin Booty, Warehouse 23, e23, the all-seeing pyramid, and the names of all products published by Steve Jackson Games Incorporated
are trademarks or registered trademarks of Steve Jackson Games Incorporated. Dork Tower characters are copyright © John Kovalic.
Munchkin Booty is copyright © 2008, 2010 by Steve Jackson Games Incorporated. All rights reserved.
Rules version 1.5 (September 2010).
www.worldofmunchkin.com
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